How to Adjust Your Neck

Almost everyone has experienced waking up with a sore neck. Or something happens and the neck just hurts and you can barely turn your head. Most chiropractors charge around $75 for a ten-minute visit to force the neck back into position, almost always causing soft tissue damage. Some chiropractors even ice their clients after an adjustment! Another case of the cure being worse than the condition. Now, with Self Adjusting Technique, you can take maters into your hands. Not only that, but it can be done without force, cracking, or pain. The most common misalignment in the neck is a rotation. That is, the vertebra rotates to one side or the other. The first thing you would do is to feel around and find where the neck is tender. It will probably be more tender on one side of the vertebra than the other. The part of the vertebra that protrudes at the back of the neck is called the spinous process. Many muscles attach to it, and when you press into those muscles, you find the tenderness where they are bunched up from the vertebral rotation. Finding what is out and which way is very important, so you know which way to adjust. Feeling for the sore or tender areas is one way to do this. Feel around; get to know what is really going on in your neck. Adjusting takes a little pressure into the muscles and a rotation of the neck. Pressing into the muscles help them to release, and the natural movement of turning the head brings things back where they belong. For example, say the third cervical which is about two and a half to three inched below the base of the scull has rotated to the right. To adjust, take your left hand behind the back of your neck and press on the right side of the vertebra. The middle finger works well, but it doesn't matter, just so you can pull into the muscles just to the right of the vertebra and pull it to the left. Gently press into the muscle to release and encourage the spinous process to the left. Drop your chin a little and slowly turn your head to the right allowing your finger to follow along on the muscle as you turn your head. It only takes about four ounces of pressure, sometimes even less. That is the basic Self Adjusting Technique for adjusting the neck.